Miles to Go Before We Sleep
by Smalex
Summary: When faced with a busload of potential and no hellmouth to call their own, the Scoobies set out to find a new mission, although they're soon to discover the missions will always find them out wherever they end up.
1. Save the World and Party

Buffy sat on the edge of the bed, tired beyond belief and full of conflict. He had told her that she didn't mean what she was saying. He thought he knew her better than she knew herself, but the grief overwhelmed her. Was it this strong when she'd lost Angel? She didn't think so, but that had been different, she'd lost him slowly, lost his trust, but had to watch him week after week, trying to hurt her. Spike had hurt her, but it was different, she'd fallen for him before he even had a soul, and back then the hurt was inevitable, she'd already been halfway to loving him when he got it back. Already touched on the problem that always faced her and Angel. If she gave him that one moment of happiness, the being that would emerge would come from her nightmares. If Spike had the same curse, the being that would emerge would already be her friend and protector, and she grieved for them both, Spike ensouled and the Spike who had defended Dawn with his life two years ago.

There was a knock on the door, and she got up to answer it. Willow stood shyly looking up from under her fringe.  
'I just wanted to say I'm sorry, about Spike. I know there's a lot of cheering going on out there and I know we did good today, but you're allowed to be upset you know. He was special. It's okay to feel bad.'  
Buffy felt tears springing into her eyes.  
'How do you do that? How do you always know?'  
Willow smiled. 'Magic. You want to come to the bar with us? Everyone's kinda hyper. I don't think there'll be much sleeping going on tonight. Big plus in the 'forces for good' column and the drinks are on the house. Apparently, more vampire activity in the Mojave than you'd expect and the locals want to do some back-slapping. The guys here heard the rumble, it even made the news.'  
Buffy grabbed her coat from the bed, trying to shake off the feeling that he wasn't really gone, even though she'd seen him burn and - she looked down at her hand - had the scars to prove it.

The evening was fun, they all had tales to tell and the locals were happy to let them. Faith sat in a corner, subdued but smiling, and Buffy joined her for a while.  
'Is he okay?'  
'He's feisty enough. Wouldn't let me stay with him when he heard there was a party. But he's not like us B. He's not going to heal fast. He's in the fight, but he doesn't have the advantages we have.'  
Buffy was surprised by the concern in Faith's eyes.  
'We don't know what he has.'  
'Just because there's Slayer blood in there, you didn't throw Dawn into the fight.'  
'Yeah but I didn't stand in her way for that long either, and she's barely sixteen. He's a grown man. He gets to decide how he lives and how he dies.'  
'Yeah, I guess, but what if something happens? That's my call, my responsibility. That kind've thing can eat a girl up inside. I'm on a thorny path to redemption here B. Having someone to worry about, maybe I'm not ready for that.'  
'Maybe you're never ready for that. Speaking as someone who's best friend just lost an eye because of one bad decision I made. You have to weigh up the risks.'  
Faith looked over her shoulder and laughed.  
'Speaking of Pirate Xander. He looks like he's had a few too many.'  
Buffy turned around to see Xander and Andrew about to launch themselves into Karaoke.  
'Whatever we do, there's just no stopping the forces of evil.'  
Faith laughed. 'I'm going to head back to the room, check on Robin. You look wiped.'  
'Thanks.' Buffy grinned at her. 'Heh Faith.' Faith raised her eyebrows. 'We kicked ass today. You don't have to worry about your thorny path. I've got your back.'

She turned to watch the disaster taking place on stage, letting Faith leave the room. Was it like this with all of them? Could they all feel each other like she felt them? It was kind of cool to be able to trust Faith completely, to just know that she was being genuine, but she remembered the last time she'd been allowed into people's heads and that hadn't ended too well. She was more in the mood for spicy peanuts and pretzels than liquidised demon organs right at the moment.

Kennedy was pretty much wondering the same thing. There were a lot of slayers in the room and every time she received a congratulatory hug from one of them, she also got a wave of adrenaline. Was it going to be like this every time they got into a fight?  
She sought out Buffy across the room and walked over to her.  
'Heh' Buffy smiled as she sat down.  
'Listening to the not so righteous brothers?'  
Buffy grinned. 'And we had that big fight for nothing. You think they would be more subdued.'  
'I think it's dedicated to Anya.'  
Buffy smiled sadly. 'She deserves better than that surely.'  
Kennedy shifted in her seat, 'Buffy?'  
'What's up?'  
She tried to think of a way of phrasing what she wanted to ask.  
'Buffy. In the battle…did you feel….I mean, I know there was the big magic and we all felt something, but did you feel, afterwards…can you?'  
Buffy grinned. 'You want to know if I can tell how nervous you are right now?'  
Kennedy grinned back at her. 'Thank God. I thought it might just be me.'  
'Big energy high in this room. My guess is that's why we're not all passed out right now, because I'm certainly beyond tired.'  
'Do you think we should worry about it?'  
'You know what? I think we probably worry about way too much. I mean it's not as if everything turns out to be evil, although I just totally jinxed us. Mention it to Willow, see what she says. I think we can leave this one till morning though.'  
She sank back into her seat as Xander and Andrew came to the end of their number, and Kennedy got up to go find Willow. Giles was sitting over the other side of the bar at a table with some of the girls. He was laughing and talking, but he kept throwing glances her way, concerned looks and smiles.

Buffy turned to the girl nearest to her, muttering, 'I'm gonna hit the hay. I'll see you guys in the morning,' and she pulled on her coat, running the gauntlet of slayers to get to the exit. She nearly made it, only to find herself enveloped in a hug by Xander.  
'What did you think of the duet Buff?'  
'It was…do I have to lie?'  
He grinned.  
'That bad huh? Well I guess I'm not really in the right mood for singing. Are you okay? I mean, I know Spike and I didn't really get on, but well, the vamp got it right today. You gotta give credit where it's due, and he's due credit.'  
He smiled at her and raised his glass. 'To fallen heroes.'  
Buffy raised her empty hand to clink his.  
'No drink? You leavin' us?  
'I'm beat Xan, if I don't find my bed in the next minute I'm going to be passed out on the floor of this bar.'  
'Well if you can wait five minutes I think Andrew might be keeping you company.'  
He glanced over to Andrew who had moved on to acapella numbers and was forcing various slayers to join in on the key lines by holding out an imaginary mike to them.  
Buffy watched him for a second. 'Tempting though that is…'  
Xander grinned. 'Well sleep tight. We saved the world today. That's gotta be cause for a restful night.'  
But at what cost? She wondered looking at his eye patch and wondering, not for the first time that day, about choices.  
Xander caught her look. 'I like it Buffy. Well I don't love it. Black eye patch wasn't on my Christmas wish list or anything, but it's okay. It would feel weird to have gotten away from so many battles without one scar. I feel as though I earned it somehow.'  
'You earned an empty eye socket?'  
'I earned my place. Fighting next to you. No one could question whether I deserve to be here.'  
'Xander,' she reached up to stroke the skin next to where his eye should have been, 'It was never in doubt.'  
He smiled at her and she missed him already, missed the complete Xander, can you miss an eye? 'I kinda love you, you know that right?'  
He reached his arms around her. 'You know it might be the karaoke influence talking, but ditto.'

Buffy left the bar smiling. Barely keeping her eyes open. She walked back across the street to the Motel where they were staying, past the tiny pool and over to her room door. Faith was walking past with a bucket of ice.  
'Hey, I guess you finally gave in to the exhaustion too.'  
Buffy nodded trying to fit the key into her door.  
'B I meant to ask. I'm kinda getting weird feelings when I'm around you, is that…I mean are you….feeling them too?'  
'Faith are you coming on to me?'  
Faith looked startled. 'God no! I mean, geez that came out wrong. I was trying to…'  
Buffy grinned. 'Relax I'm playing with you. You mean the whole slayer empathy thing? I think we've all got it. Kennedy is going to mention it to Willow, so I guess we'll deal with it tomorrow.' She paused for a second, 'although I'm thinking if Xander had heard parts of this conversation…'  
'Never met a guy so easy to please.' She grinned. 'Well, this is melting all over me. I gotta get back to Robin. Sweet dreams.'  
She strode off to her room and Buffy turned her own door handle pushing it forwards and leaning back on it in the delicious cool of her room. There was a king size bed with her name on it and she thanked whatever higher power might be up there that it was only three steps away.


	2. What Happens Next?

The next morning the Scoobies sat in a diner eating a late breakfast. Between them and all the slayers, they pretty much had enough people to fill the school bus they'd appropriated and all the tables round about were full of familiar faces. Willow poured syrup over her waffles.  
'So you think it's a side effect of the spell?'  
Kennedy waved her fork at her. 'What else could it be?'  
'I don't know, ordinarily I'd say research, but we kinda lost all the books.'  
Giles looked up from his tea.  
'I have a back up library. I mean it's based back in England, but it's all on computer. We can get someone to send it over to us.'  
Buffy nudged him in the arm.  
'Since when did you join the computer age?'  
'I…I didn't. Willow did it for me years ago. When I first decided to go back.'  
Willow shrugged looking slightly hurt. 'I thought you didn't keep those.'  
'Well, it seemed like a good idea, and I made you take time out of your summer, so it felt rude not to keep them.'  
'I guess. Well yeah me. And Giles obviously. So there's a plan. We get hold of a computer and we research. Good old fashioned research.'   
Xander groaned. 'I don't know if I'm prepared to keep saving the world if the only reward I get is to bury myself in heavy old books, or computers, or…whatever, some metaphors don't translate so well.'   
Buffy picked up a piece of toast, 'but if it's part of the spell Willow did then it can't be that bad can it? I mean that was good magic, right, not black magic?'  
'I meant to tell you guys. It was so cool. There was this energy around me, and seriously. I mean I'm over my thing with magics, but this was very very cool!'  
Kennedy chipped, 'Her hair went white. And I don't mean X-Men Rogue one feeble stripe white. She glowed white.'  
Xander beamed. 'That's my Will.'  
'I didn't know at first if it was going to work, but it just sort of came over me.' She grinned at Kennedy. 'Bad choice of words.' Kennedy tried to stifle a laugh. 'Well you know, you get the idea. What I'm saying is, there were no ill intentions there. That was white magic.'

Everyone shuffled uncomfortably in their seats. Giles put another lump of sugar into his tea and took his glasses off to clean them, getting a look from Buffy that he recognised even without the clear vision.   
One of the girls came over from a table nearby.  
'Hey guys. I didn't mean to interrupt, but we were sort of wondering, whether there's a plan. I mean some of us have homes to go to, but we don't really want to go home. We wondered if there was anything long term we should be doing? In the fight, against evil you know, because it hasn't…I mean…it's still there right, evil? It hasn't gone completely? We still get to fight right?'  
She shuffled awkwardly and Giles smiled at her.  
'Yes, there is still evil to face. And don't worry. You'll all have somewhere to go, to train and….well….other..' He trailed off, not quite sure whether he was telling the truth. Buffy cut in. 'It will be fine Vi. Tell the others not to worry. We're all in this together now. You're sticking with us for as long as you want to.'   
Vi smiled and walked back to her table where the girls crowded round to speak to her.  
'So,' Buffy turned back to the group, 'I guess we need to find somewhere to stay. With a lot of rooms.'  
Willow grinned. 'You know who I know that doesn't live that far away and owns his own hotel?'  
Buffy cut her off. 'Yeah and that would work out just great Will.'   
Giles jumped suddenly. 'Sorry just my phone. I have it on vibrate.' He pulled his cell phone out from a pocket and excused himself from the table.  
Xander watched him go. 'Who would call him? Aren't we all the people he knows?'  
Faith grinned, 'Well I guess we can rule out any Sunnydale numbers.'   
It was hard to hide the excitement in Willow's voice. 'Maybe it's the coven. In England?' then off everyone's bemused looks. 'They were cool okay. They took me in when, lets face it, I was kinda apocalyptic, and they helped me out a lot, plus the most amazing library I have ever seen. Judge away I don't care.' Kennedy put a protective hand over hers.  
'I think it sounds cool.'

Giles came back to the table. 'That was one of the elders.'  
Willow grinned, 'Told ya so.'  
He furrowed his eyebrows. 'They tell me that they've had girls turning up on their doorstep since yesterday afternoon.'  
Faith chipped in. 'Slayers.'  
'I should think so. I've told them to house as many as they can, but I'm going to have to go back. This might alter our plans somewhat.'   
Buffy sipped the last of her coffee. 'I guess we need a big meeting. Has anyone seen Dawn this morning?'  
Willow glanced over at the tables of slayers. 'She was hanging out with the girls. I think she liked having people around her own age to talk to.'  
Xander spotted her and pointed. 'Over there with Amanda. Hey Dawn.'   
Dawn looked up, but Buffy was already walking over to her. She slid into the booth next to Dawn.  
'Hey Buffy, Amanda was just telling me about the fight, with the cavern and the millions of uber-vamps and everything. Gotta tell you, I'm glad I wasn't down there. I'm sure it was fun and everything, but I was scared enough where I was thank you very much.'  
Buffy put a protective arm around her.  
'The guys are talking about what we're going to do next. I didn't know if you'd want…'  
'I'm fine with whatever you decide. We're all in it together right? I trust you.'  
She smiled gently and Buffy hugged her. 'Okay, well I'll let you know as soon as we decide anything.' She looked around at the rest of the girls who were all looking right back at her. She could feel their unease this morning. 'We'll let you all know.'

Back at the table talk had moved on to filling Kennedy and Robin in on past fights.  
Xander was laughing, 'You should have been there. I was awful.' Willow gave him a look. 'Well I was. It was all I could do not to run away screaming like a big manly girl.'  
'Don't say that Xander. You're incredibly brave.'  
He grinned, 'and I have the battle scars to prove it.'  
There was an awkward moment as everyone shifted slightly in their seats and tried not to catch anyone's eyes. 'It's okay guys. It's my eye and I say it's okay to joke about it. The bad guy was sliced and diced and it all ended happily ever after.'  
Buffy squeezed in next to him. 'Did anyone come up with any ideas?'   
Giles looked up, happy to change the subject back. 'We could head for Cleveland.' He paused as no-one registered anything. 'The other hellmouth. There's sure to be something we could do to help there.'   
Willow was looking thoughtful and Buffy looked over at her. 'Will? You okay?'  
She looked up. 'I'm fine. I've got an idea. I think we need to go to England.'  
Xander groaned. 'Is this about the libraries, because seriously, they're gonna have to be pretty impressive books Will.'  
She glared at him. 'I'm being serious. I think we have to think bigger. Pool our resources and get organised. Right now our biggest chance is with the coven. They have the resource and the funding to help us out, and they're not like the Watchers Council, they understand the fight. We could start something really important from there. Start our own council, train up some real Watchers, no offence Giles.'  
Giles raised his eyebrows. 'None taken.'  
'I mean, we could get a big research team going who really know how to help, and then we'd have an army. Really and truly we'd be a force to be reckoned with.' She stopped, out of steam, but Buffy could feel it in Faith and Kennedy, excitement bubbling up inside. Kennedy squeezed Willow's arm.  
'I think it sounds incredible.'  
Xander grinned. 'Like a school? We destroy two high schools and then we open our own? Is there no escape?'  
Giles cut in 'An academy of slayers, learning how to really fight.'   
Buffy leaned forward, 'We got so carried away with how urgent everything was back there we never really got a chance to slow down and train them all, and now there are God knows how many and we could get them to do it right. We could protect them until they're ready.'   
Andrew leant over from the booth next door. 'I think it sounds cool. I'm in. Do we get to wear lapel badges?' 


	3. Roadtrip

They spent the day trying to get organised. Buying supplies for the journey, and tending to wounds that were starting to heal. Robin had perked up over night, he sat quietly, but he smiled, even joined in with the conversation occasionally, and whenever he thought no-one was watching he squeezed Faith's hand, which made her feel strange. Nice, but still new. She wasn't used to having her emotional buttons pressed, and she was still afraid for him. They needed to head for a bigger town, somewhere they could pick up clean clothes and get themselves properly organised. They needed money. Giles had savings, and oddly Xander had a bit put away, and a couple of the girls managed to get hold of emergency money transfers from obliging parents, but essentially they were a group of teenagers, and Buffy hadn't even been working for the past month.

Giles piled them all onto the bus to head further East for the time being. He needed to get to an International airport as soon as possible, and they could do with the kind of medical attention that a big city could supply, but first he wanted to get as far away from Sunnydale as he could. No-one was up to answering questions about why an entire town just fell into a big hole in the ground. He wondered whether they would blame it on the enormous cave system under Sunnydale. Even he had to admit there was enough mileage in the sewer system to cause a little concern. So long as what was left at the bottom of the hole didn't leave suspicions. He guessed it was just a pile of ash by now thanks to Spike and his little ball of sunshine, but he wasn't taking any chances. Just one identifiable slayer body, last known address 1630 Rovello, care of Buffy Summers, and they were all suddenly under suspicion. He hadn't voiced his concerns to Buffy. She didn't need to know and it probably wouldn't come to anything. It just made a good argument for heading East.

The Arizona sunlight shone through the bus windows. It was designed for short journeys and the air conditioning was crappy. Everyone was hot and grouchy. Giles had been on edge all the previous day, worried that the engine would overheat out in the desert and leave them stranded, but they'd pulled through okay. They always pulled through okay.

Faith smiled to herself looking out of the window at the bleached desert. Robin was sleeping, his head rested on her shoulder and it was good to know he was there, with her. Maybe having someone to look out for wasn't so bad if it made her feel like this, she rested her head against his, feeling the smoothness of him. Maybe she would head to England with the others, maybe to Cleveland, or maybe they could go to New York catch up with Robin's dad, who lets face it, was a Watcher from way back and might be able to help out with the gang's plans. After all she was a fugitive still, she couldn't afford to be hanging out with last known associates or picking up plane tickets. She might even head back to Boston and look up a few old haunts. It would be good to have someone to show them to. She was willing to bet good money she could get Robin to jump into the old Quarry pool. She grinned as he made gentle noises in his sleep. 

Andrew was sitting in the middle of the back seat playing word games with the Slayers.  
'Is it bigger than a breadbox?'  
Vi grinned. 'Yes'  
'So, it's mineral, it's orange, it's old, it's wet.' He corrected himself, 'but only in the middle…and it's bigger than a bread box.'  
Xander had been listening to Andrew torture the game for nearly half an hour. They needed someone with serious snark around here. He missed Anya, he hated to think it, but he missed Spike. Dawn cut across his thoughts.  
'For Gods sake Andrew we just drove past a sign for it.'  
'We did. Is it a place?'  
The girls all nodded, and Andrew faced with looks of condescension, stared back puppy eyed. 'I give up.'  
There was a chorus of 'The Grand Canyon!'  
One of the girls said, 'Do you think we left behind our own Sunnydale Grand Canyon?'  
Another chipped in. 'Wouldn't it be weird if it ended up being a tourist attraction.'  
Dawn grinned, 'I can just picture little kids sitting on the edge staring down into the mouth of hell, enjoying a picnic lunch.'   
They all laughed.

Willow and Kennedy sat further up the bus behind Giles. Kennedy was half asleep trying to wish herself cooler, but not wanting to move away from Willow. She was half listening as Willow muttered to herself.   
'I can't think it could have been anything bad. I mean anything bad would have felt bad right. I would have known something wasn't right.'  
Kennedy mumbled. 'Did it taste chalky?'  
Willow smiled, 'No, exactly, it didn't, so it wasn't evil, it was good. It felt good, I mean it felt really good, so I'm not going to worry. As soon as I get hold of Giles' books I'm not going to worry.'  
Kennedy forced herself to sit up a little. 'Well it doesn't seem that weird really. Kind've natural, and it isn't getting stronger or anything. I think it's to help us.'  
'Help us what?'  
'Help us find everyone. There are maybe thousands of girls out there and we're lucky if half of them have any idea what's happening to them. At least this way if we walk past one we'll know it. This way we can help them out.'  
Willow furrowed her brow. 'You think that's what it's for? Inbuilt Slayer radar? That would be cool.'  
Kennedy smiled and Willow blew gently into her hair to try and cool her down. 

Xander got up from his seat and moved over to where Buffy was sitting alone.   
'Is this seat free?'  
She looked up at him and grinned.  
'Actually my boyfriend will be back any second. He's just gone to the restaurant car to fetch ice water.'  
Xander sat down next to her.  
'If he brings any back I might date him myself. Who'd a thought we'd ever be driving across Arizona in a portable yellow oven?'  
'We live the crazy life.'  
'Buffy?' Xander's face took on a serious look. 'I'm not going to be weird about it or anything, but I just wanted to say. You did this. Take a moment for that. I mean there aren't going to be any ticker tape parades or wild parties, apart from the one last night and someone should really have stopped me before the third tequila and the singing of ballads in front of people, but you did this. We all fought, we all carried out the plan and I'm not complaining, but there were moments back there when I know we doubted you, and I'm sorry for those, I think you doubted yourself even, but you came through. You thought up this incredible plan, and you managed the plan and you got us all back on board. You got the job done. You rocked.

I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life but I think I'm done in construction. I mean my entire resume just collapsed into a hole in the ground. I don't think that's going to look too good to prospective employers, but it's more than that. I think I want to build something bigger. Willow's idea this morning. We could really get things started. We just turned this into a fair fight for the first time in…well ever, and I'm in it for the long haul.'  
He paused and Buffy smiled a watery smile at him.  
'You've got to stop doing that Xan. You make me look like a softy in front of the girls every time you go all inspirational on me.'  
He grinned. 'Maybe I can't help it. Are you okay? I mean, you can tell me. I know I'm not known as the big sympathy guy, especially where the vampire exes are concerned, but I think I can empathise with this one. Confused feelings for those of suspect moral standards, and big loss and pain, combined with ultimate redemptive acts. Seriously I'm right there with you.'  
Buffy smiled and leaned onto his shoulder.  
'You know what I miss?'  
Xander tried to see her expression. 'What?'  
'I miss the backchat. I mean it's great that we're all alive and we all get on and everything, but this bus needs some serious sarcasm. Everyone is being too nice.'  
Xander grinned.  
'I'd kinda noticed that too. You know, we stick together, I think we might just pull through this okay Buff.' 


	4. Goodbyes

They reached Flagstaff by nightfall and everyone piled off the bus and into a motel. They were feeling budget conscious and Giles made as many share as could. Buffy and Dawn were in a room with Willow and Kennedy which made for awkward silences and giggling into the night, while Xander, Andrew and Giles had to share, much to Giles' chagrin. Faith balked at the idea of piling in with the rest of the gang saying if she'd wanted to go back to sleeping in a dorm she'd have handed herself in to the police, and proclaimed Robin too sick right now to stomach the company, thus claiming a room for two, while the rest of the slayers managed to squeeze into two rooms.

Giles called England for an update and came back relatively relieved by the news that the influx of slayers had slowed to a steady eb. They stalked around Flagstaff in the dusk, looking into shop windows, the girls hoping to find some action, while Buffy just hoped for a store that might sell clean clothes. They found a couple of vampires, old and lazy, too complacent with their pickings. They didn't know what had hit them, suddenly faced with about a dozen slayers. Buffy almost felt sorry for them. Almost.

The next day they headed south for Phoenix which would have the airport Giles was looking for and hopefully the doctors that Robin said he didn't need. Faith wasn't getting any less worried about him. He slept most of the time, leaning on her shoulder or wrapped in her arms, but with every hour she felt more a part of him. She wasn't prepared to lose him, when he might be her big chance for redemption. 

Phoenix was a dust bowl. It was the middle of summer and too far inland for anything but unbearable heat and a dependency on air conditioning. They found clothes stores and agreed that Giles should head back to England and check everything out before they bought air tickets for more than a dozen people. Buffy and Xander drove him to the airport in the big yellow bus and made him promise to call every day.

Giles stood with his ticket in one hand and a polythene bag in the other, looking a little pathetic against the rivers of commuters piled down with expensive looking leather cases. Buffy hugged him tight, trying hard not to let her emotions overwhelm her since she ran the risk of breaking a rib or two if they did.  
'You promise to come back this time?'  
He answered a muffled response, and she relaxed her grip a little.  
'I promise. At the very least I'll send for you.'  
'Good. Because I absolutely refuse to fight a single apocalypse without you. You're like my rabbit's foot.' He gave her a quizzical look. 'You're good luck for me.'  
Giles smiled warmly.  
'You promise you'll let me know the instant you need anything.'  
'I thought I was supposed to be the adult now.'  
'Yes, well I think you've proven your capability Buffy. I just doubt you've got enough money on you to buy a bar of chocolate that's all. Just call me if you need me, or if anything peculiar happens. Promise?'  
Xander stepped in.  
'We'll be fine Giles. We'll stay put till we hear from you, sit around the pool, catch some sun, kill some vampires, general young, free and single stuff. Look after yourself.'  
He moved in for a bear hug that took Giles' breath away.  
'We're going to miss you.'  
Giles turned and walked through passport control and Xander turned to Buffy.  
'Do you think they have hugs in England? He always looks so surprised whenever he gets one. I'm telling you if they aren't there then I'm starting hugs in England, because that's a craze waiting to sweep a nation.'  
Buffy laughed. 'We should get back to the others.

The others were all lazing around the pool at the motel, soaking up the sunshine, splashing in the water and generally having fun. Buffy watched them from the sidelines. This was what she'd always wanted, somewhere to belong where she could slay at night, but still be normal the rest of the time, and they all slipped into it so easily, like a fantasy vacation. Xander stood on the edge of the pool already in his shorts. Preparing to dive in, goggles fixed over his face in an obscure way that gave the impression he was still intact somehow.   
'Clear the decks children. You're about to see something spectacular!'   
He launched himself into the water, tucking at the last moment to bomb perfectly, splashing everyone around. When he resurfaced he was grinning from ear to ear.  
'Thank you thank you. Sunnydale High swim team of '98. Last surviving member.'  
Buffy couldn't help but grin at him. Looking over at Willow who was grinning back, abandoning her drenched novel to dry in the sun. 

Faith and Robin lay in sun loungers a little ways back from the pool, concerned about getting water on Robin's dressings. They had been to the medical center in town and had Robin checked out, and he was smiling, happily supplied with some serious painkillers at last. He reached out and took her hand.  
'Hey. How're you doin'?'  
Faith smiled at him.  
'Just fine now you're on the mend. You got me worried there for a second pal.'  
'You've changed your tune. I thought you didn't y'know, emote.'  
Faith looks pissed for a moment and then smiled.  
'Well I fought in an apocalypse. On the right side for once I might add, and it feels pretty good, like I might want to start doing some living. You up for that? You want to live up to your promise? You gonna surprise me?'  
He smiled weakly. 'I thought I did that on the bus.'  
'You're not getting out of it that easy buster. I'm expecting more from you.'  
He grinned. 'I got more.'

Buffy walked back to her room to get changed and put her swimsuit on. She couldn't remember the last time the gang had just lounged around together. Not since before Riley left.town. She searched around for the bag from her shopping trip when Giles had insisted that he treat her, and pulled it out from under the bed. The room was full of clothes, all the surfaces covered in bottles and damp towels and the cast off grime-covered clothes of the last few days. She hunted around for a clean towel and unable to find one headed down the hallway to a pile she'd seen earlier on a cleaners' cart.

The corridor went on forever and the cart wasn't anywhere along it. She muttered under her breath about the indignity of a serious warrior for the forces of good, stumbling around a motel in a bikini, and turning a corner, bumped into…herself. 


	5. and Hellos

Her first thought was the First, but the other Buffy threw her a quick punch and she reeled, somewhat surprised but ultimately relieved. Punches meant solid and solid mean fightable. The other Buffy looked shocked at what she'd done, and turned back to where she'd come from shouting at the top of her lungs.  
'WES!'   
Buffy stayed down, feeling a little ill-equipped for the situation. The other Buffy was bruised and dirty, her hair pulled back, face serious. She wore khaki pants and a t-shirt and leather jacket, which in the current heat must have been verging on painful.  
'WES!'   
Buffy looked as a familiar figure came running round the corner, dressed all in black, sweat pouring from his face. Wesley? The other Buffy grinned at him.  
'Look what I found. Me. Who would've thought that would happen?'  
He stared down at her.  
'Fascinating…err I mean hello. I'm…do you know who I am?'  
Buffy decided it was time to taken charge.  
'Of course I know who you are Wesley. At least I did know. What's with the black? In fact scratch that. What's with the other me?'   
Wesley looked down at her.  
'It really is you.' He turned back to the other Buffy. 'Another you. Except, without much in the way of clothing.'  
'I was on my way to the pool.'  
He glanced behind her at the pool, which was in distinctly the other direction. 'Right.'  
The other Buffy sneered.  
'Like that's the important point here. Hello, two me's. And stop leering at her Wes. Put your tongue back in. That's me.'  
Wesley pulled himself together somewhat. 'Right, well it's obvious. I didn't think it would be an issue since we're nowhere near Sunnydale, but it's the risk of travelling to alternate realities really. Jonathan predicted it might happen.'  
The other Buffy screwed her face up, 'And you didn't think you'd tell me?'  
He shrugged. 'It didn't seem important. There's probably another me somewhere nearby.'  
He turned back to Buffy who had decided that standing up might bring her back into the conversation.  
'Is there? Another me. That would be...well…weird I suppose.'  
The other Buffy grinned at him affectionately. 'You go find you, and I'll go find the others.' She glanced over at Buffy, 'seriously surreal.' Then ran off around the corner.

Wesley turned back to Buffy.  
'So am I here?'  
Buffy rubbed her head. 'I'm confused. You're in LA. You work with Angel.'  
'Angel?'   
Wesley stared at her. 'The vampire with the soul. That Angel?'  
'There's only the one.'  
She realised too late what she had just said, and how true it was. There was only one.  
'Well that's unexpected I must say.'  
Buffy started to walk back to the pool.  
'I think we need to ask Willow about you?'  
Wesley stopped dead in his tracks.  
'Willow?'   
Buffy failed to notice his awkwardness.  
'With Giles gone, she's probably the best person to answer any questions. I'm not saying she'll know anything, but at least she stands half a chance. I'm clueless.'  
She turned around at last noticing Wesley wasn't with her.  
'Are you coming?'  
He snapped back to look at her.  
'Yes, of course, Willow.'

They rounded the corner to face the pool and all the girls, who had decided to drown Xander. He was protesting at the use of slayer strength, complaining that if it weren't for that, he would have trounced them all with his water skills.

Buffy coughed trying to get their attention, but nothing was getting through.  
'Err, GUYS!'  
They looked up.  
'Look who I just found wandering the halls, and believe me, this is not the weird part.'  
Faith looked over at them and grinned.  
'Wes! What are you doing here? You need me back in L.A.? What's the what?'  
She looked confused as he backed away from her.  
'Wes? Are you alright?'  
Wesley stepped back onto Buffy's bare foot, and turned to apologise.  
'I'm sorry…it's just….is that Faith?'  
Buffy nodded 'Yes.'  
'And she's not evil?'  
'She got over it.'  
'Well that is…'  
'…fascinating?' Buffy finished up.  
Willow stood up and walked over to Wesley.  
'Are you okay, because you look a little funny Wesley, like you might pass out. Did something happen?'  
His face had grown tense and he stared at Willow as she walked towards him, and then turned suddenly as noises came from the corridor.   
Buffy looked over at Willow.  
'You're not going to believe this part. This is the weird part.'  
But she wasn't too sure she believed it herself as first Xander and then Jonathan walked around the corner. Andrew strained to see from his sun lounger, but even he didn't recognise the other three people rounding the corner.

Willow took a step closer to them all, but the other Xander complete with two eyes, was staring at her mouth open.  
'Willow.'   
He ran toward her taking her by surprise in an enormous hug.  
'Oh my God!' He threw a look back at Wesley, and then turned to face her, his eyes brimming with tears. Willow was uncomfortable in the hug. One-eyed Xander watched her from the pool catching her eye shrugging, equally baffled by the reaction. She eased her way out of new Xander's grasp.  
'It's very nice to meet you too.'  
She turned to Buffy.  
'What the heck is going on?'

The other Buffy rounded the corner and stopped dead in her tracks.   
'Willow. They didn't say you were…'  
She glanced at Xander and then at one of the other figures standing in the shadows of the motel. New Xander turned to look at her, his eyes shining.  
'It's Willow. It's really Willow.'  
Willow, still confused, stared at the man at the back of the group who had just stepped out into the light.  
'Oz?'   
He stepped forward, up to the railings, first glaring at Wesley, then turning back to her with such an intensity that Kennedy took a step closer and Buffy could feel the jealousy coming off her in waves.   
'Will?'   
She walked over to the railing and held her hands out, and he took them in his and brought them up to his face, inhaling deeply.

Dawn walked up to Buffy.  
'Okay so that's weird. Is anyone else thinking that's just weird?'   
The other Buffy threw her a dismissive glance, and Dawn looked hurt, muttering under her breath. 'Seems weird to me.'  
Buffy sat down on one of the sun loungers.  
'So I guess this is the sort of thing Giles wanted us to call him about.'


	6. By Way of Explanation

They all sat in one of the bedrooms. Buffy, Willow, Xander, Kennedy, Faith and Andrew, staring over at Buffy, Wesley, Xander, Oz, Jonathan, and it turned out, Larry and Percy from High School.

Buffy ran her fingers through her hair.  
'So this is weird. Dawn was right, this is weird.'  
Wesley took a sip of water.  
'It's not that absurd. Jonathan can explain it to you properly.'  
Andrew looked over at Jonathan guiltily.  
'You really don't know who I am?'  
Jonathan frowned.  
'You look sort of familiar. Were you in my chem lab in High School?'   
Andrew smiled sadly.  
'That would be my brother Tucker.'  
Percy stared at him. 'The guy who tried to wreck the Prom?'  
Andrew muttered, 'That's the guy, everyone remembers him.'  
He settled back on the edge of the bed and watched Jonathan, who pulled himself together and launched into a speech.

'Right, so…alternate realities, sorry Wes. Alternate realities. There are millions of alternative realities to the one we inhabit.'  
Xander interrupted him.  
'We know this part. With the shrimp, or lack thereof, we've had this speech from Anya.'  
The other Xander looked confused. 'From who?'  
Xander glanced at Buffy and went quiet, and Jonathan waited a moment and started again.  
'Anyway, we come from a reality where, things seem to have gone a little differently, and besides a lot of other stuff, in our reality, Willow is not so…well….alive, as she is in this one.'  
Kennedy tightened her grip on Willow's hand, and Willow stared at them all open-mouthed.  
'What do you mean I'm not alive? What happened to me?'  
Wesley glanced around at his group, who all seemed to expect him to come out with an explanation.  
'There was an incident.' He stopped and cleared his throat. 'It's hard to explain, since I don't know how much you may have done differently. Perhaps the Mayor didn't even feature in your reality.'  
'He featured alright.' Buffy glanced over at Faith, but she seemed to be doing okay. Just listening.  
'Well in our reality he was a great threat. There was to be an Ascension. He intended ascending to the level of a full demon, something unprecedented in history…'  
Xander coughed. 'Didn't we find two other…' but Buffy cut him off.   
'To do this he needed to ingest the contents of a box, and we staged a daring attack on his offices and stole the box from him…'  
Oz was breathing oddly, obviously upset.  
'…only Willow was captured during the attack.'  
'The Box of Gavroc right?' Buffy looked at him quizzically. 'What's the big deal? We got her back?'  
Oz stood up and walked to the back of the room and two eyed Xander cast a look at Wesley.  
'We didn't get her back. It was too great a thing to give up. We had the means to destroy his plans in front of us and we knew there wouldn't be another chance. We destroyed the box, we had no choice.'  
The mood in the room had risen to hostile as the others stared at Wes, then Oz said.  
'There was a choice, there's always a choice.'  
Wesley buried his head in his hands. 'I didn't think anything would happen. I was working for the greater good. And I didn't think Faith was truly that evil. I underestimated her.'  
Faith glanced at Willow before staring at Wesley.  
'What did I do? Tell me Wes, what did I do?'  
Oz hissed from the back of the room.  
'You gutted her.'  
The other Buffy sat steely faced.  
'And I tried to kill you for it.'

Faith turned back to Willow, but Buffy put a hand out for her and she took it.  
'We make choices everyday Faith. Depends on the time, where we're at. What's running through our sometimes crazy minds, but we get second chances. That's not who you are anymore.'  
The other Xander piped up. 'You're not anyone anymore. You were in a coma for three years. You know how many people survive that long? It's not a lot. They called Wes when you died. We held a party.'   
One-eyed Xander glared at him. Confused as to who to be defensive toward. He didn't know what he would do if he lost Willow.  
She clenched Kennedy's hand tightly and smiled.  
'On the bright side, your Willow never got a chance to turn evil and nearly destroy the world. That's an up right?'

Andrew crossed his legs, and started ticking things off on his fingers.  
'So Willow is dead, and Faith is dead, and Buffy is kinda grungy, but Xander got to keep his eye, and Jonathan…' he paused for a second, '…well he's alive.'  
Jonathan looked at him alarmed. Xander jumped in.  
…and Larry. Heh Larry. He's looking a lot more lively than when we buried him. So you're saying…'  
Andrew shrugged, 'I don't know what I was saying. I was just kind've listing stuff, but it's fun, you should try it. Which one is Larry?'  
Larry put his hand up, a little thrown by news of his burial.  
Xander pointed, 'And that's Percy, who also went to High School with us and was kind've an ass really, but Willow liked him, and Oz.'   
Andrew looked shocked.  
'Willow's Oz? The werewolf guy? The 'guy who wasn't a girl' pre-coming out guy? Interesting.'  
'I'm right here guys.'  
Willow admonished them, 'and I guess I didn't really get a chance to do much coming out if I was efficerated.'  
She turned to Oz.  
'There was a whole big thing there. We really talked it through well, but I'm kinda gay, a little bit. I have a girlfriend.'  
Kennedy raised the hand that wasn't holding on to Willow. 'Heh.' 

Buffy turned to Wesley.  
'And Giles?'  
'He was fired. He stayed in California for a time until he had handed over to me fully, but then he went back home.'  
The other Buffy chipped in. 'We still get Christmas cards. He keeps in touch. And we call if there's anything nasty going on, but Wes gets the job done.'  
She smiled at him for the first time since they had started talking.   
'He's saved my ass on more than one occasion. Saved all of ours.'  
Xander put an arm around her and kissed the side of her head. One-eyed Xander exchanged a look with Andrew, but they said nothing. Buffy stood up.  
'And now you're here. And you turn up right after we destroyed Sunnydale. That can't be a coincidence right? Will?'  
'I don't know, I'm bookless, I'm bereft of books. It's kinda like having your hands tied, except with less books.'  
Kennedy laid a calming hand on her hand and the other Xander watched her intently.  
Buffy walked over to the door.  
'So we need a plan. Kennedy, can you go next door and tell the girls what's going on? Take Andrew with you, and try not to get too confusing okay.'  
Kennedy stood up lingering over whether Willow was okay, but she followed Andrew out of the door. Buffy turned back to the group.  
'Stop me if any of this is crazy, but I say we don't go into any more detail. My head is about to explode as it is. This is four years of differences we're talking about. You guys are different people to the people we knew…know…are, and we're going to come out of this all bent out of shape if you keep imagining our Willow is your Willow, or that Faith isn't on our side, because there's an aborted apocalypse about 600 miles down the road that says she is and that's plenty good enough for me, okay?'  
The group on the other bed looked at one another. Buffy continued.  
'Now I'm guessing you didn't travel to an alternate reality just to catch up. You've got something going down here.'  
Wesley was quick to chip in.  
'A shape-shifting demon, it can leap from one reality to another and alter them. We have it tracked to somewhere in this reality, but we don't know where exactly.'  
Buffy clarified, 'So anywhere here? Anywhere? Anywhere on Earth?'   
Jonathan picked a heavy book up from the bed. 'It leaves a trace behind it. We can track it.'  
Suddenly Faith looked up. 'So if I'm dead, who gets to be the next Slayer, which one of our girls was gonna be the next big cheese?'  
Wesley coughed. 'When you…when Faith died, a girl in Germany was called. Her name was Marlene. The Watcher's Council had been monitoring her, she was trained up already. We don't have much to do with her really. There's something of a language barrier.'

Buffy tensed slightly. 'I saw her, in a dream. The Bringers killed her.'   
The others looked down. Taken back to the reality of the past year, how close the First had come to taking them all down.

Willow looked over at the other Buffy and Xander who were considerably invading each other's body space.  
'Have you got anywhere…I mean are you….do you have somewhere to stay?'   
Wesley smiled at her. 'We'll be fine. We have our gear with us in the truck.'  
One-eyed Xander stared at him.  
'You have a truck?'  
Wesley grinned. 'It's a safety measure. For travelling between dimensions and realities. If there is more than one of you then it's safest to surround yourselves on four sides with some sort of metal casing, plus it's handy for getting around once you're through.'   
He leaned over and high-fived Percy.  
'Worked like magic. We have tents in the truck and camping gear. We'll find somewhere nearby.'  
Willow looked concerned.  
'It's pretty hot out there. We can get you a room or something. We can do that right?'  
Buffy nodded.

'We're fine. We're used to the hardship.'  
The other Xander laughed.  
'I personally would like to be less used to the hardship if that's okay, and I think Buffy could use a good night's sleep, that chest wound still isn't completely healed remember.'  
Wesley looked at him. 'Well you two can get a room if you like. We'll be close by if you need us though. I'm not leaving you undefended if the shapeshifter attacks again.'  
The other Buffy sighed.  
'I'll have Xander with me Wes, he'll be right there in the room if there's any sign of trouble, and plus there are two Slayers just down the hall.'  
'Actually.' Faith chipped in, 'there are about a dozen of 'em.'  
Everyone stared at her. 'See there was this spell. Willow worked some wicked mojo and we kinda made 'em all slayers, so we have a ton of them if you have any problems.'  
Xander put a hand up. 'Can I get back to the part where the two of you are sharing a room?' He gestured wildly at the other Buffy and two-eyed Xander, who looked surprised. Other Xander stared at him. 'You mean you're not…'  
Wesley interrupted him to speak to Willow. 'You made slayers. You…I don't understand. Out of what?'  
Willow wondered how to explain. 'We just sort of maximised their potential. Every girl who might have had the power in the long run, just…well…does now. There was this scythe…'  
Buffy couldn't contain her excitement. 'It's in my room, it's really pretty, you should see it.'  
'…and I think it had some ancient power for slayers, which we…well I…tapped into. It was fun, apart from the apocalypse part.'   
Wesley looked confused, but excited. He stood up.  
'This is all fascinating!'  
The other Xander yawned, and looked up at everyone's judging stares.   
'It really is, Wes is right. It's just, I'm kinda wiped. We've had a pretty long day, what with the inter-dimensional travel and everything. Big scary demon, gaping chest wounds, but you guys know, you've been there.'  
He turned to face the Buffy sitting next to him.  
'We should really get some sleep honey. We can rehash all the coulda been's over breakfast.'  
They all stood up, Wesley and Jonathan lingering to ask Willow a few questions, which she barely had time to start answering. As they all filed out of the door, Oz stopped in front of Willow and reached out a hand to the side of her face.  
'Will.'   
She held his gaze. Torn by the hurt in his eyes. She still held a soft spot for Oz, and Oz hurting made it that much softer.  
'Heh.'   
He just stared at her, his eyes filling with tears.  
'I didn't…' he faltered, 'I didn't mean to let you down.'   
She put a hand up over his.  
'You didn't okay. I don't know what the situation was exactly, but I know that I've escaped death by the skin of my teeth on more than one occasion and if I wasn't so lucky, like the way things worked out for you, then I wouldn't have blamed you. I wouldn't have blamed any of you. Oz I loved you.'  
Oz let his hand fall and walked out of the door following the others, and they closed it behind him. 


End file.
